Throwback Review: Escaping Wives and Lovers: A Journey into the Doghouse

On the p*ss. On the pull. On the menu
The latest and most outrageous in a wave of UK comic horror films like Shaun Of The Dead, Doghouse is a raucous, balls-out funny spin on male insecurity over their own masculinity and vengeful women. A group of guys (including Danny Dyer of The Football Factory and Severance and Stephen Graham of Snatch and Public Enemies) head off for a boys weekend to buck up a friend still depressed over a painful divorce. Unfortunately, they end up in an isolated town infected with a bio-weapon that has turned all the women into the man-hating monsters the lads always suspected women were at heart. The guys spend less time bonding and a lot more time fleeing from hairdressers, nurses, schoolgirls and other iconic female figures all looking to snip away with scissors and swords and literally do what the guys have been fearing for years. Deftly satirical, witty and just bloody good fun, Doghouse is the most original battle of the sexes in years.

Is this a great movie? A classic that you will go back to over and over again? No. Is this movie highly entertaining? Does it give you characters you can identify with, or you can say: “Hey, that guy acts just like my friend”? Yes. Doghouse would be the perfect having-friends-over-for-pizza type of movie. As long as the friends are not squeamish. There is a lot of gore and bloodshed in this film. From the infected women (the scariest one for me is the infected dentist – as if dentists need anything additional to make them creepy) to the death scenes of the guys, this is one continuous bloodbath.

To be honest, not everyone is going to love this movie. It does present both men and women in very stereotypical lights, but it is only to further the purpose of the plot. It also presents marriage and relationships in a fairly negative light. I can see why this was important to the story, but it does somewhat get a little overdone in a few of the scenes. The underlying plot is the typical super-secret military plan that has caused the infection to be released, and now the military has lost control of infected subjects, which are only women. Men are their food.

This group of guys make some of the stupidest decisions I’ve ever seen. The worst part? I’m pretty sure that if you threw any group of guys into this situation, you would end up with some of the same results. I know that during the comic book shop scenes and the church scenes, I was thinking “yes, I could see my friends and I doing this”. There are some definite influences from Shaun of the Dead and 28 Days Later in this film. Not to mention we have two scenes where music that would fit perfectly into a spaghetti western was playing.

If you are looking for a movie that is fun and gruesome all at the same time, you won’t be disappointed in Doghouse. It’s fun, it’s bloody, and there are plenty of infected women to creep you out (the housewife, the cosmetologist, the witch, the bride, etc)! Check out the trailer and photo gallery below: